The British Columbia government says the cyber incident is not a ransomware attack, but details are still scarce

The British Columbia government is keeping quiet about details of an apparent cyberattack on its digital networks.

The province said late Wednesday that it had identified “complex cybersecurity incidents involving government networks.”

On Thursday, Public Security Minister Mike Farnworth said cybersecurity experts had not yet found evidence that sensitive information such as health records had been accessed or compromised.

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“Their top priority is to ensure the integrity of the system, protect the system, protect the information, that’s what they’ve done,” Farnworth said.

The province is working with Cybersecurity Canada and police to investigate the incident, which Farnworth confirmed was not a ransomware attack.

Farnworth also couldn’t speak to the attackers.

However, officials have not clarified exactly when the attack occurred. Farnworth told reporters only that he had been identified “recently.”

“The challenge is to go out and tell people right away. If you don’t have everything secured, if you don’t understand what happened, you make the system more vulnerable to outside interference,” he said.

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Farnworth said security improvements to the province’s networks in 2022 allowed officials to detect the attempt.

BC United’s Official Opposition Leader Kevin Falcon said the government owes it to the public to provide more details.

He referred to the recent cybersecurity incident at London Drugs, noting that the company provides almost daily updates on the situation.

“We know that they have known for at least eight days that this is a problem,” Falcon said.

“And last night they quietly made a statement in the middle of the Canucks playoff hockey game, which is part of their pattern of behavior of always keeping things secret and not being transparent.”

In its media release Wednesday, the province said it had notified B.C.’s Information and Privacy Commissioner’s Office and would be “as transparent as possible without jeopardizing the investigation.”

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